It’s a Hot One

Andy finished the marathon!

Despite leg cramps that started around mile 10 and persisted and the hottest Twin Cities Marathon on record, he finished!  I’m so proud of him!

I saw a woman collapse at the end and try to crawl through the medical officials trying to help so she could reach the end. Despite that, we’re luckier than the Chicago Marathon. Yikes.

He wants to do it again sometime. After his legs recover

 

Countdown

I received my official packet of marathon information in the mail last week. I’m genuinely sad at not running this Sunday.

I’m excited for Andy though! I’m going ahead with my plans to run the 5K.

 

Twin Cities 5K

So I might be running the Twin Cities 5K Run/Walk, which is the day before the marathon. A friend is planning to run, and it wouldn’t be that hard to train for since the distance was a staple in the training program I was doing. And this way, I can still cheer Andy on!

 

Marathon No-no

I’m not doing the marathon.

I actually decided a bit ago, but was holding out for some reason. There were too many transitions this month and hours that I thought I would be working to do the intense training.

Andy is still doing it! Cheer him on!

 

In and Out

This week begins a proverbial “crunch time” for me. Classes start up, a new job start(ed) that will take up lots of time, plus training and everything else. I will try to keep readers updated, but as you can already tell, my devotion to updating has gone down as free time has gone down.

That being said, the marathon is just over a month away!

 

Unrelated

Well it’s been an emotional and busy week.  Wednesday I was taking a shuttle from Pequot back to the Cities, planning to update when I got back home. However, close to home I found out about the 35W bridge collapse, and cue to countless cell phone calls (when people could get through) from frantic friends wanting to know if I and loved ones were safe. Well, thank goodness we were (and are). But, nevertheless, the rest of the evening was spent watching the news and fielding phone calls instead of anything else.

After that, the future sister-in-law came into town for the weekend, so I’ve been running around and entertaining all weekend. A marathon-related update will happen soon.

 

A long run means a lot of time to think

Or fight. Apparently I was feisty Saturday morning when Andy and I embarked on our 9 mile run, which made me angry for exactly the first half of the run.  Anger makes running hard, but at the same time, it gave me a really good pace!  Fortunately, we were able to match that pace for the second half, and made it home.  Our goal on the second long run was to get home, however possible (meaning running or walking).  A goal for that run and the next was to push beyond when I wanted to stop running, and to keep running for a bit. That worked.

New goal: For the long runs, stick to a marathon pace or better to build marathon endurance.  Up till now, we had been pushing, but not setting any time goals necessarily. Now – kick it in high gear. For 14 more weeks.

Continuing Goal that I fail at: Hydration.

 

Blast from the Past

On one hand, the runs this week have been going very well, save for the end of the 4-mile run yesterday, where I practically sprinted a good portion of it, for no particular reason. It should be good runs up through tomorrow, when we have to run 9-miles.  I hope my legs can push forward for that long. Andy has been doing a great job at setting a pace and I”ve been able to kick myself into gear for longer, so it’s been nice. Last night’s run was along the Mississippi River.

On the other hand – the Spice Girls are having a reunion tour, around the world. They’re only hitting up LA and NYC in the United States I think. Not that I’m wanting it go, it just amuses me.

 

Confirmation

Yesterday, I didn’t run until 10 p.m. Now, that might sound really late, but it was still about 80 degrees and humid at that time, I just wasn’t battling the sun as well.

When I got home after that, I saw a beautiful piece of mail sitting on the counter for me. I got my official acceptance into the Twin Cities Marathon! Hurrah!

The last two nights, I’ve been out with a friend or two to get food. At each location, I have drained my water glass within 5 minutes of being seated. Gee, I guess I’m thirsty. That also means I need to drink more throughout the day.

 

A respite

The pre-training running has been interrupted and lessened due to the death of my grandmother.  Next week though – real marathon training begins!